Overall
Impression: These plugins work beautifully. Flawlessly. Intuitively.
You just install them and get to work. It's that simple. On top of that, each
effect is entirely customizable. This is a useful set of tools with incredible
functionality. For Pete's sake, you get 54 effects for $129!

Key
Benefits: There are two primary benefits to using FILTERiT
3. First, you can do things you couldn't otherwise do in Illustrator.
Second, in the areas where you could do some of the things included
in FILTERiT 3, you will save literally hours on each project.

Disappointments:
Not a single one. (And that's a first.)

Recommendation:
We give FILTERiT 3 our top rating: Strong Buy.

Warps

REVIEW SEPTEMBER
13, 2000CValley FILTERiT 3 for Adobe Illustrator54
effects to make your life a whole lot easier

I gave this set of
Adobe Illustrator plugins a Best of Show award for this year's Seybold
convention. That was before I had a chance to play with it in the comfort
of my own Mac. Now that I have had the chance, I must say I'm more impressed
than ever.

FILTERiT 3 is the first
American version of this Macintosh-only set of plugins for Illustrator 8/9. It
comes with 22 plugins that generate a total of 54 effects (plus about 30 sub effects),
each one customizable through its own palette that only pops up when the tool
is active. Each effect falls into one of seven categories: warps, waves, lenses,
metabrushes, fades, point alignment, roughening, sweeps and "live" effects.

This last category, "live"
effects, includes 11 customizable settings for working with text without converting
it to outlines. Effects are updated on the fly as changes are made to text. They
can also be used on objects, which are also updated on the fly as changes are
made to the object.

I can't say enough good
things about this set of plugins. It does what no other set of plugins has ever
done, namely make me want to work in Illustrator. This might sound a little snotty,
but I don't like applications that require more numerical input than artistic
talent. FILTERiT 3, while supplying all the level of control the most anal designer
could ever desire, frees me from the technical restraints of illustration programs
and offers the kind of freedom I expect from a paint program, while offering the
functionality most paint programs can't match.

Simply put, I love this
thing. So let's take
a look at what FILTERiT 3 can do.

Warp Tools

FILTERiT
3 adds several new icons to your Illustrator tool palette. These are the
filters you'd use on objects and text outlines. They don't offer live
updating, but they can produce some outstanding results. Of course, if
you apply a filter style to an object that also has a live filter applied
to it, the object and all its clones will be updated as usual. We'll look
at them one by one, beginning with warps.

When you click on the Warp
tool, a palette of 22 warp styles pops up. (You can see the Warp palette in the
margin on the left of this page.) These range from curves and spheres to sharp
convex and concave shapes. To apply a warp, you select your object, select the
style you like and click your mouse on the canvas, moving it around to adjust
the strength of the warp. Select any number of objects, and FILTERiT automatically
determines how to apply the warp across all the objects, as if they were a singe
object, as in the example below.

From this:

To this with one mouse click:

Holding the Shift
key provides symmetry to the warp. Holding the Option key changes the
warp into a horizontal distortion rather than a vertical one. Shift-Option
adds symmetry to the horizontal warp. Within the Warp palette, you also
have the option of applying perspective and adjusting the margin. A live
preview shows the effect of the filter in real time as the mouse is moved
around.

And, as with all the
tools in this set, a small help icon appears on the palette to provide
the user with quick access to tips for using the tool.